Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - offseason edition

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Devs3cups

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This version of Holtz isn't an NHL player, but I don't think this version of Holtz is what we're bound to get. As we've seen with Hughes, it doesn't always come right away, and just because it doesn't come right away doesn't mean he'll never get there, but there's work to do.
Pretty much. What I see is a kid who needs to work on his skating/positioning and who has the willingness to work on these aspects (from interviews/coaches, etc.). He’s definitely made steps this year, gotta keep making more steps, as any high-end prospect does.
 

Bleedred

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Best part is, the seasons is over.

Devils hockey was horrific to watch after Hughes went down....happy the kids did well though.

Fitz has GOT to get this team better or he's outta here......the goaltending, I expect Blackwood and someone else next year as a 1A/1B.
I expect Blackwood to be in Utica next year at some point, if he’s still in the organization. Unless we get a really good starter that we can shelter him like Nashville did to Rittich this year in the regular season.

I’m getting real vibes that Blackwood is gonna get CORY’d a little ways into next season, just like Cory was.

At that point we’ll either be seeing Daws again or maybe that’s when we’ll bring out the Bernier onto the ice in his wheelchair lol.

I’m at the point where I just don’t expect Blackwood to do much of anything, other than either suck when he’s on the ice or be too hurt to stay on the ice.
 

Tao Jersey Jones

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There I go again? Your post made no sense and wasn’t replying to anything. I was trying to decipher it.

It seem to suggest Holtz would do bad in the AHL playoffs because Stillman did in the OHL playoffs. Holtz’s actual past performance in playoffs seem applicable.

I didn’t realize it was about… nothing? (Or banter? Not a joke of course, you frown on those.)
It made no sense to you because you didn't follow that was a continuation from the closed thread but you still tried to come back with bringing up previous postseasons.

Let it go.
 

vtdevils2k

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I expect Blackwood to be in Utica next year at some point, if he’s still in the organization. Unless we get a really good starter that we can shelter him like Nashville did to Rittich this year in the regular season.

I’m getting real vibes that Blackwood is gonna get CORY’d a little ways into next season, just like Cory was.

At that point we’ll either be seeing Daws again or maybe that’s when we’ll bring out the Bernier onto the ice in his wheelchair lol.

I’m at the point where I just don’t expect Blackwood to do much of anything, other than either suck when he’s on the ice or be too hurt to stay on the ice.

Be ready for Blackwood and someone else......who else realistically can they bring in? I want to keep that top 5 pick.

Seeing the highlights from the game on NHL network...omg......yikes...Blackwood....woof.
 
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Bleedred

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Be ready for Blackwood and someone else......who else realistically can they bring in? I want to keep that top 5 pick.

Seeing the highlights from the game on NHL network...omg......yikes
He was horrific in this game. He was so bad tonight he made the Ottawa game look good.

I would say this was a tie with the Arizona game before he got shut down and the Boston game shortly before for his worst games of the season. It’s a three way tie.

The third goal wasn’t as bad as it looked initially though. Dougie takes him out of the play and it causes him to not be able to get set in time for the shot.

The other 3 goals were not good and the game winner was pathetic. But you won’t get to see a good shot of just how bad that game winner was because that was originally a no-goal.

I’m still optimistic we will bring in someone good for next year. Maybe it involves our first and maybe it doesn’t.

I do wonder if it’s a possibility that we do trade Blackwood (he’s probably worth a tub of shit at this point, between injuries and a 55 game stretch and counting of poor play when he’s actually out on the ice) and go with new guy/Bernier, but you probably can’t really rely on Bernier either.

I honestly don’t know what you do with Blackwood after next year in the event that he does have a good season. Can we really justify another three year deal with how poorly he played in the first two years of this deal? How do we know it wasn’t just a one year bounce back?
 
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Lou Bloom

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Zetterlund and Okhotyuk both were impressive since their call ups and I think both guys deserve a real shot at a regular role next season. I wouldn't be surprised if both end up having a much bigger impact on this team over the next couple of seasons than many of us originally expected of them.
 

NJ07102

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This version of Holtz isn't an NHL player, but I don't think this version of Holtz is what we're bound to get. As we've seen with Hughes, it doesn't always come right away, and just because it doesn't come right away doesn't mean he'll never get there, but there's work to do.
From day one you could see Hughes would be a fantastic NHL player, even when he was way too light and from a physical standpoint clearly not ready to play in the NHL. There is absolutely nothing besides his shot that suggests Holtz can be anything special in the NHL. And physically, he looks head and shoulders above current Hughes.
 
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LuvTheDevs

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I think besides the on-Ice product the organization as a whole should very concerned about something else, and I am gonna relate it to my experience this year.

I have been a fan of this team for over 30 years they are my undisputed favorite of the 3 sports I follow. I have been an on and off season ticket holder in some capacity for the past 15 years (depends on my work/school schedule). I have always made it a point to watch all 82 games even if it is in replays or DVRed, I would read all the news and fan blogs, and regularly visit this site. Every season I would buy over $100 worth of merch. I did all this even with the miserable seasons of the past 12 years sticking it out through the whole season.

But this year...

After we were out by our usual date of Christmas and it turned to January, I found myself just not caring about the team or the season. And just to be clear, this wasn't a conscious decision. Its not like I made a statement like "I will no longer watch this crap team any more!" It was done completely subconsciously. I didn't realize I wasn't paying attention until the March 22 7-4 victory against the Rangers when my Rags fans friends were texting me. Not only was I watching Netflix instead of the game, but I had know idea they were even playing them. I would have never missed a NJ-NY game in the past. And only then did it dawn on me that I haven't watched a game since January or even visited any sites with Devils news. I then took stock of this year and saw that I didn't buy any new merch, wear my jersey regularly, and that even in my non season ticket holder years I still averaged 10 games a year. This year I did 4 and that was only because 2 games were free tix and I turned down 2 more free games because I didn't want to waste my weekends.

And this is why it's bad news for the future, if a die hard fan like myself, and I'm sure many people on this board, gets so disappointed year after year and start to tune them out they are gonna lose major revenue and a future fan base.

Again, I didn't abandon the team cause they have been crappy. I still love the team and always will, I'm just trying to show how a crappy product can cause apathy and uninterest. I'll still go into next season full of hope but who knows, if they are the same old team that they have been, maybe I'll stop caring by Thanksgiving.
 
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My3Sons

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I think besides the on-Ice product the organization as a whole should very concerned about something else, and I am gonna relate it to my experience this year.

I have been a fan of this team for over 30 years they are my undisputed favorite of the 3 sports I follow. I have been an on and off season ticket holder in some capacity for the past 15 years (depends on my work/school schedule). I have always made it a point to watch all 82 games even if it is in replays or DVRed, I would read all the news and fan blogs, and regularly visit this site. Every season I would buy over $100 worth of merch. I did all this even with the miserable seasons of the past 12 years sticking it out through the whole season.

But this year...

After we were out by our usual date of Christmas and it turned to January, I found myself just not caring about the team or the season. And just to be clear, this wasn't a conscious decision. Its not like I made a statement like "I will no longer watch this crap team any more!" It was done completely subconsciously. I didn't realize I wasn't paying attention until the March 22 7-4 victory against the Rangers when my Rags fans friends were texting me. Not only was I watching Netflix instead of the game, but I had know idea they were even playing them. I would have never missed a NJ-NY game in the past. And only then did it dawn on me that I haven't watched a game since January or even visited any sites with Devils news. I then took stock of this year and saw that I didn't buy any new merch, wear my jersey regularly, and that even in my non season ticket holder years I still averaged 10 games a year. This year I did 4 and that was only because 2 games were free tix and I turned down 2 more free games because I didn't want to waste my weekends.

And this is why it's bad news for the future, if a die hard fan like myself, and I'm sure many people on this board, gets so disappointed year after year and start to tune them out they are gonna lose major revenue and a future fan base.

Again, I didn't abandon the team cause they have been crappy. I still love the team and always will, I'm just trying to show how a crappy product can cause apathy and uninterest. I'll still go into next season full of hope but who knows, if they are the same old team that they have been, maybe I'll stop caring by Thanksgiving.
A valid point and one that every team save a few worries about. My guess is that if the team plays well next year you will regain interest. They realize they need to have a better season to revive ticket sales and viewing eyeballs. Hopefully they can figure it out.
 

Nocashstyle

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As absolutely horrific as this season was, I actually feel a lot more optimistic than previous seasons. With Hughes and Hischier, and to a lesser extent Bratt…it was “they’re going to be good” and they will be the core, but their production just wasn’t there yet. After their individual seasons, we can finally be confident that they are all true building blocks.

I was also really happy to see Sharangovich wasn’t just a flash in the pan his rookie season. I’ll admit, his first two months of this year had me concerned, but 30 goal seasons are clearly very attainable for him going forward.
 

Oneiro

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I get that it's frustrating but if you think this is really bad, then you've been lucky as a sports fan.

Go ask BUF, VAN, PHI, etc. fans what it's like when a team lets the short term dictate everything, trying to head off apathy. The time to be mad was when Schneider, Zajac, Greene and Henrique were stuck losing 1-0 games, not when you're asking 20-24 year olds to take you to the playoffs.

I'm sorry but I have zero sympathy for the older fans, including myself, who witnessed one of the truly unique, greatest franchises in the history of sports.
 

MachoDiablo

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As absolutely horrific as this season was, I actually feel a lot more optimistic than previous seasons. With Hughes and Hischier, and to a lesser extent Bratt…it was “they’re going to be good” and they will be the core, but their production just wasn’t there yet. After their individual seasons, we can finally be confident that they are all true building blocks.

I was also really happy to see Sharangovich wasn’t just a flash in the pan his rookie season. I’ll admit, his first two months of this year had me concerned, but 30 goal seasons are clearly very attainable for him going forward.
Yeah, there's no denying that it sucked seeing how quickly they fell out of it this year, but this is the nature of a true rebuild: you go young, and it means that if some other parts don't shake out (in this case Dougie getting hurt, the goaltending turning into a grease fire, etc.) you'll likely end up with a bad record. Sucks, but that's usually how it goes when the key guys you're running out there are almost all under 25 years old.

I'm very much of the mind that this season boiled down mostly to what happened to the goalies. Not to say a healthy Blackwood/Bernier combo puts the Devils in the playoffs; 100 points was the minimum in the East this year, and that would've been asking too much. But I have little doubt that they'd at least have been closer to where the Isles ended up this year, closer to the "best of the rest" even if they weren't particularly in striking distance of the playoffs.

Kind of has to be said again: the actual rebuild of the New Jersey Devils as an organization didn't really begin until Taylor Hall was traded away. Most of what went down before that was "retooling", in my book: an attempt to compete for a playoff spot while also trying to bring in some more young assets, combined with getting lucky in the lottery a couple of times. When they traded Hall, it was like an addict finally admitting they had a problem: Lou had spent years never letting us rebuild (with good reason, especially back in the days when there was still a fear we'd be relocated), but by 2014 it should've been clear that approach wasn't working anymore, and the organizational cupboards were pretty barren.

Well, they've now had a couple of seasons with this full rebuild underway, and you know what? They have a quality top six emerging already, along with what seems like a nice variety of options for the bottom six. There's now a growing influx of young defensemen making their way up, plus a few veterans to help ease them into the lineup without having to throw them into the deep end. For two (not even) full seasons, that's really not bad progress.

Of course, it looks like a nightmare; the record the past two years absolutely sucks, and saying "just need to improve the goaltending and they'll be better!" is easier said than done. But the pieces are beginning to fall into place; if the goaltending can even be mediocre next season I anticipate them getting up into the 80s in points, and looking primed to take the next step.

Regardless, Fitz can't and won't be complacent this offseason, and hopefully we get more good draft news; if they can at least stay in the top five then I think they'll get one of the guys a lot of us are hoping for.
 

Nocashstyle

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I get that it's frustrating but if you think this is really bad, then you've been lucky as a sports fan.

Go ask BUF, VAN, PHI, etc. fans what it's like when a team lets the short term dictate everything, trying to head off apathy. The time to be mad was when Schneider, Zajac, Greene and Henrique were stuck losing 1-0 games, not when you're asking 20-24 year olds to take you to the playoffs.

I'm sorry but I have zero sympathy for the older fans, including myself, who witnessed one of the truly unique, greatest franchises in the history of sports.

I’ve thought about this a lot. Let’s leave Buffalo out of this because they’re in a league of their own, but a team like Vancouver or Philly, at least in the past 30 years or so, have never had stretches as bad as this current Devils stretch. They will be good, come up short in the playoffs, get really bad for two or three seasons, make playoffs again after a short time, repeat….Right now, just even watching a team in the regular season that wins enough games to make the playoffs sounds really appealing, but at the end of the day, it’s still all heartbreak. I can’t imagine being a fan of a team and either never see them win a cup, or having to wait 50+ years for another one. I’m 32 and started watching the Devils with my dad as early as I can remember. From the second I started watching hockey they won a cup, then two more, and only missed the playoffs two times in a 16 year span. These past 10 years of horrific seasons (2018 excluded) have been tough because I’ve obviously never experienced anything like it before. And I’m sure a lot of others are in the same boat.
 

Devils731

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From day one you could see Hughes would be a fantastic NHL player, even when he was way too light and from a physical standpoint clearly not ready to play in the NHL. There is absolutely nothing besides his shot that suggests Holtz can be anything special in the NHL. And physically, he looks head and shoulders above current Hughes.
Nothing indicating future special status…other than having a gangbuster AHL season; a perfectly age appropriate way to show likely future NHL success.
 

NJDevs26

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I get that it's frustrating but if you think this is really bad, then you've been lucky as a sports fan.

Go ask BUF, VAN, PHI, etc. fans what it's like when a team lets the short term dictate everything, trying to head off apathy. The time to be mad was when Schneider, Zajac, Greene and Henrique were stuck losing 1-0 games, not when you're asking 20-24 year olds to take you to the playoffs.

I'm sorry but I have zero sympathy for the older fans, including myself, who witnessed one of the truly unique, greatest franchises in the history of sports.
The Flyers have at least been competitive for the most part until the last couple years…incompetent management which wasted some very good players sure, but trying and having egg on your face is better than just picking around the margins and being completely irrelevant for almost an entire decade. Vancouver made the playoffs two years back, got derailed in the short season and just missed this year but they’re close to being on the right track. They also need more competent management though.

The jury is still out on our management team btw…they’ve done more or less the bare minimum by piling up prospects and younger players after a ton of bad seasons, but they’ve still come up woefully short when it comes to coaching and adding anything from the outside. We know how much the goalies have blown up, Subban didn’t work and the jury is still out on all of our D acquisitions last offseason. Our most important forward addition in ten years was Hall, who just got turned into more futures anyway.

The last sentence is where we agree…the Devils concern shouldn’t be reengaging the die hards, our owners have enough of a portfolio to ride out poor seasons at the box office. Their concern should be in losing the next generation of fans to the Rangers and other quasi locals plus the NBA. You can’t engage younger fans with a perennial loser no matter how many cute YouTube videos and Twitter one liners they post. Not when a team with a bigger profile in your area has been an almost perennial contender, and it’s not like we have the biggest pool of potential younger fans to draw from to begin with.
 
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RSeen

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I'm not sure a player like Foote will fit in. He seems to be a very slow skater. I'd be open to using him and Smith as trade chips, though Ty may have really tanked his value.

I think we have enough in our system to offset both of these players.
 

RSeen

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I don’t even worry when Bahl is out there. He is playing like a vet.
I think he has a good shot at getting a role on the team next year. Give him the year on the 3rd pair and see if he can show that he can potentially handle more in the future.
 
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Camille the Eel

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Foote too.
Zetterlund was in an entirely different class. Actually our best player last night, some of those rushes dangling the puck. But - as they said on the radio - the question is can he do it for 82 games or was this an adrenaline fueled rush ? You see guys do stuff for a game or five or ten but where do they settle out when the tide is flowing the other direction.

But I don’t remember a more promising end of season call up. Within recent memory he’s the most promising. The guy was dominating the game.
 
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Devs3cups

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Hughes, Nico and Bratt are amazing and will be for years. Having two locked up is great. Hope we can keep Bratt at a bit of a hometown discount. Same with Boqvist, Wood and Zacha on bridge deals.
Mercer is going to be a player.
Dougie H never really got back to what he showed at the beginning of the year after getting hurt.
Graves and Siegenthaler are solid. Good if we could extend Sevs at a reasonable price. Better if we can deal him as a rental. Better if Ty Smith comes out and plays great and we can deal him.
Maybe Bastian and Zetterlund are the real deal.
We unfortunately have Tatar and Johnsson for another year.

We need to be tougher to play against.
We need goaltencing.
We need to learn how to play some team defense.

Siegenthaler A-
Hughes A-
Bratt A-
Nico A-
Mercer B
Bastian B-
Zetterlund B-
Boqvist B-
Hamilton B-
Graves B-
Foote C
Sharangovich C
Zacha C
Severson C
Bahl C
McLeod C-
Vesey C-
Subban C-
Geersten C-
Dawes C-
Bernier C-
Johnsson A- first quarter F rest of the season
Blackwood D
Schmid D-
Tatar D-
Kuokkanen F
Hammond F
Ty Smith G
Gillies H
Wood inc
I think Rango deserves a B, Severson is a bit low for me, but I can live with the list.
 

ChicksDigTheTrap

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The Flyers have at least been competitive for the most part until the last couple years…incompetent management which wasted some very good players sure, but trying and having egg on your face is better than just picking around the margins and being completely irrelevant for almost an entire decade. Vancouver made the playoffs two years back, got derailed in the short season and just missed this year but they’re close to being on the right track. They also need more competent management though.
It just depends on what you as a fan would prefer. The Flyers have not been a Cup contender for years. They may have one young high end piece in Farabee for all of this time of not being a contender. The Devils have been worse but at least have some young talent in the org. The short spurts of the Flyers being "competitive" in the past gives them no advantage over the Devils moving forward.
 
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